Daoist Competition

August 6th, the grand ceremony of the Lie Xuan Sect’s Ancestor, all seven Nascent Soul True Masters within the sect returned to the Main Temple.

However, regardless of sect members or external guests, none knew that among these seven people, except for Great Elder Gongyang Sheng, who was still presiding over the ceremony, the others only briefly appeared at the start of the event. Then they hid within the inner hall, never to appear again; those remaining on stage were merely doppelgangers.

These doppelgangers were not hastily arranged but had been prepared a few years in advance.

With hundreds of thousands of Lie Xuan Sect disciples, finding a few people with similar appearances wasn’t difficult. The challenge was that their cultivation aura couldn’t be faked, so many methods were used to cover it up. Now, they could finally pass off the fake as real, deceiving people with fish eyes mixed with pearls.

Yet even so, when faced with those with piercing eyesight, flaws were still easy to spot.

Especially Great Elder Gongyang Sheng, too many were familiar with him, and he still needed to lead the ceremony and couldn’t free himself. In front of cultivators from various sects coming to observe the ceremony, it was impossible to have a substitute from beginning to end, so he had to play his part thoroughly before finding a chance to withdraw.

Inside the inner hall, six Nascent Soul elders were seated together.

Rui Daoist looked around and said with emotion, "Luckily, Qingshi Temple and Golden Ling Sect did not send envoys to the ceremony, or else our doppelgangers wouldn’t have deceived them."

The Tan Surname Female Crown’s eyes widened, suddenly asking, "Senior Brother Rui, what method did you use to make them not attend the ceremony?"

The grand ceremony of the Lie Xuan Sect, if you don’t invite fellow cultivators, it doesn’t make sense and may arouse suspicion.

But if you invite them over, it’s inevitable that flaws may be revealed.

Yet now, with no disciples from Qingshi Temple or Golden Ling Sect attending, there must be a reason, and she was very curious about how Rui Daoist accomplished it.

Rui Daoist laughed heartily and said, "Junior Sister Tan, in fact, it’s not that difficult. Guests are allowed into the inner sanctuary if they’re willing to pay homage to our sect’s Ancestor’s golden body statue; otherwise, they can only stand in the outer hall to observe."

The Tan Surname Female Crown, upon hearing this, understood and smiled, saying, "No wonder."

After all, Golden Ling Sect and Qingshi Temple are among the three sects of Pingdong, standing as equals with Lie Xuan Sect in the Central Pillar Continent. How could they agree to pay homage to Lie Xuan Sect’s Ancestor?

But in the outer hall, giving congratulations with those from small independent sects, they were also unwilling, so they chose to ignore it, acting as if they hadn’t heard about it.

The Lie Xuan Sect has always spread its teachings everywhere, and wherever disciples go, they urge others to worship their Ancestor. Now with the Ancestor’s Ascension ceremony, such requirements within the sect aren’t surprising, nor did the two sects’ cultivators realize there were other motives.

They were speaking with enthusiasm, while on the other side, Ye Jiliu was getting impatient and said, "How long does Uncle Master want us to wait? Aren’t we just dealing with a few small sect disciples? Is there a need to keep pretending? If he doesn’t set out, then fine, but my fellow brothers are on their way; six of us together, could we not handle a mere Daoist Zhang?" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He flung his sleeves, stood up, and started walking out, saying as he went, "I’ll go and tell Uncle Master there’s no need to wait any longer."

Rui Daoist, seeing things were not going well, quickly grabbed his sleeve and pleaded, "Senior Brother Ye, Uncle Master has his own arrangements, please be patient and don’t act rashly."

Ye Jiliu’s brows and eyes twitched, he shook off his hand, slowly turned around, and said coldly, "What do you mean by rashly? Junior Brother, explain it well for me."

Rui Daoist, seeing his cold expression, instantly realized he had spoken wrongly in his urgency.

This senior brother was hot-tempered and easily angered, not handling it well could lead to big trouble, but he was not good at reacting under pressure, and sweat immediately appeared on his forehead.

Sitting there, Sha Daoist sternly shouted, "Ye Jiliu, your impulsive actions might have been tolerated on ordinary days, but do you know what today is? You could say the rise and fall of our Lie Xuan Sect depend on today, how can we let you mess around?"

However, this statement not only failed to subdue Ye Jiliu but had the opposite effect.

Veins bulged on Ye Jiliu’s forehead, and his anger flared.

He had always been at odds with Sha Daoist, and the latter’s words further enraged him, so he roared, "Sha Liang, who do you think you are to speak to me? Are you trying to test if the Dharma Sword at my waist is sharp enough?"

In the past, when faced with Ye Jiliu’s provocations, Sha Daoist would either smile and avoid or simply ignore him, but today, for some reason, he was uncharacteristically unyielding and retorted, "Nonsense! In terms of seniority, I’m your Uncle Master, and you dare threaten me? You insolent disciple, if you dare to challenge me under this Ancestor Hall, do you think I can’t kill you?"